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The desert called so we pulled out the long boats and headed down the Baja way, first loading enough boats to take full advantage of both coasts, then cramming the truck full of every camping comfort it would take, right down to a hand-cranked margarita blender.

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Sean Morley knows a few things about going fast. He honed his forward stroke technique as a flatwater sprint racer on the British junior national team, but has made his biggest mark traveling far and fast in challenging conditions. He’s held speed records for crossing the Irish Sea, circumnavigating Vancouver Island, and paddling 4,500 miles around Great Britain and Ireland, solo.

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A private river trip on central Idaho’s mighty Selway has long been known as one of North America’s best, and most exclusive, ventures. Difficult access creates much of that challenging allure, as the Selway’s remote location compounds the scarcity of its private permits: The Forest Service issues only 62 to the lucky few of the thousands who apply in the annual lottery.

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“Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks offer some of the best paddling opportunities in the world for all abilities -- to live so near to these amazing rivers and yet be unable to experience them is a constant frustration for me and many other residents and visitors.”

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Last year, our readers were so impressed by the Trans-Territorial Canoe Expedition–a four-month, 2,600-mile canoe journey across Canada’s Northern Territories–that they voted it the Expedition of the Year at the 2013 C&K Awards. But for expedition-member Winchell Delano, crossing Canada’s far north from the Pacific Ocean to the Hudson Bay wasn’t enough. He is planning to go even bigger in 2015. Starting in January, Delano and five other paddlers (John Keaveny, Dan Flynn, Jarrad Moore, Adam Trigg, and Luke Kimmes) will canoe from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic Ocean over a period of nine months and cover a distance of approximately 5,200 miles. We caught up with Delano to get the details of the Rediscover North America expedition. C&K: Just the map of your expedition route is mind-boggling. Where did this idea come from? Winchell Delano: Part of your Expedition of the Year award included a $2,500 grant towards a future expedition. That is probably where everything started; that is, the incentive to plan something. Once the drive to plan the trip was in place, our goal was to try and surpass the previous undertaking in both distance and duration. In order to do so, we decided to orient

Independence Paddle

How and why to paddle in New York City for the fireworks

If you live in New York City and care about the outdoors, you’ll do all sorts of crazy things. You’ll train for a marathon exclusively on the 4.25-mile dirt path in Central Park. You’ll sink the bulk of your disposable income into a summer rental near the dunes of Montauk. Or you’ll cram two pairs of cross-country skis, one mountain bike, a surfboard, three snowboards, two wetsuits, a tent, and half a dozen CamelBaks into your 350-square-foot apartment’s lone closet. But the craziest-sounding scheme of all is the one that’s actually worth traveling to Manhattan: Kayaking the Hudson River. At night. On the Fourth of July.

The mental preparation: This is the farthest thing from your typical night out in New York. There will be no Marc Jacobs-clad, Stoli-and-soda drinking, Magnolia cupcake-eating city dwellers in sight. Yet it’s also completely unlike a July 4th celebration anywhere else.

The physical: Wearing drytops and soggy neoprene spray skirts, you’ll walk single-file down the gangway at Pier 63, just above Chelsea Piers. The water will be choppy, and the dock will buck and bob. You will crave Dramamine. Your guide will drag single and double kayaks from within a cavernous hold beneath the pier and set them down on the dock, where they’ll glow in the twilight. You’ll attach safety lights to your bow and stern, grab a paddle, and ease into the cockpit.

The traffic: The Hudson River will resemble the West Side Highway (located just 200 feet from pier) during rush hour. Nearly all of the city’s Circle Line barges and mini cruise ships will be out tonight, as will every drunken slob in this city of eight million who owns a powerboat. The traffic is no joke, your guide Eric Stiller, of Manhattan Kayak Company, will warn. The 25 of you are to stick together and stay close to the shoreline, which in this case is slabs of concrete and occasional tangles of rebar. You’ll push off from the dock under a halo of light from the Frying Pan, a 133-foot former lightship built in 1929 to withstand the hurricanes off the coast of Cape Fear, N.C., and later retrofitted with a below-deck bar and dancefloor. As you head out into the Hudson, pointing your boat south towards the Statue of Liberty, the Frying Pan heaves in time with the waves and the disco.

The work: Eric will lead the way in a double kayak, chatting incessantly, growing giddy about this trip – an annual paddle for him. You’ll already be battling the Hudson’s fierce current as you pass the outdoor driving range at Chelsea Piers. As you glance to the west at the condos and smokestacks of New Jersey, the sky will have that pink glow of urban nighttime.

You will be a silent member of a massive, motorized boat parade. The wakes join forces to create 15-foot waves. You’ll angle your boat into the bigger swells and let the smaller ones lift you up. Sometimes you’ll surf the biggest waves as they crest and spill toward shore.

The payoff: Your group will pull into a rectangular inlet—the Greenwich Village equivalent of a bay. You’ll extend paddles to each other and hold them tight, forming a flotilla. It’ll be quiet here, safe from the traffic. You’ll rest for a few minutes.

Then suddenly, three pyrotechnic displays will begin simultaneously, illuminating the sky above midtown, downtown, and the Statue of Liberty. The good folks at Macy’s will warm up with the standards: the spark-tailed Chrysanthemums, the cylindrical Dahlias, the comet-like Palms, and the squiggly Fish. Then they’ll deliver Bouquet Shells – bursts of light immediately followed by smaller bursts of light – and Salutes, which sound like gunshots ricocheting through the night.

The explosions will keep coming—more than 20,000 pyrotechnic shells from seven different barges. You’ll be watching the world’s largest fireworks display, in triplicate, from the water. Peonies over the Empire State Building, Horsetails dropping into Ground Zero, Willows down by Lady Liberty. And dozens of smaller fireworks displays will pop in the sky from Ellis Island to the George Washington Bridge. And by this point it won’t sound crazy at all. Being outdoors in New York has never been so glorious.